Composite rail



Dec. 13, 1966 w. c. WHEELER COMPOSITE RAIL Filed Nov. 16, 1964 w L .mL 0 c 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 O O 0 O 0 D U O O O W r m LA x fw mx @EAV m,. mm b xm Nm m /j I l il lill o illllli IlllIlllllilllil|||l|lllllllllw y LE v \\0|JIL- ||o 1 CGAF. f DI u TL w x S Q E w m m Nm M Q m t t United States Patent O 3,291,394 COMPOSITE RAIL William C. Wheeler, 10842 Langford Drive, St. Louis County, Mo. Filed Nov. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 411,226 6 Claims. (Cl. 23S- 143) The invention relates to railway track and consists particularly in rail of composite construction.

Objects of the invention include the provision of a composite rail which will substantially red-uce the noise of train operation, and at the `same time be of simple construction, easy maintenance, good riding qualities, with i-ts principal wearing surface, the head, removable and replaceable with ease `and economy, whenever its condition makes replacement desirable.

The foregoing and additional more detailed objects and advantages will be =achieved by the construction described hereinafter land illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. -l is a fragmentary plan view of a length of rail embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the length of rail illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view along line 3 3 of FIGS. 1 and '2.

The rail is built up of rolled shapes and includes a base portion, generally indicated at 1, and a head portion, generally indicated .at 3, supported on base portion 1. Base portion 1 c-omprises a steel beam of generally inverted I-shape in cross section having a vertical web 5 horizontally double flanged at its bottom as at 7 and having .a single horizont-al ilange 9 at its t-op. Bottom double flange 7 is adapted to rest on and be secured in known manner to `convention cross ties or sleepers 11 or to a continuous beam, if desired. At spaced intervals, generally rectangular plates 12 Iare positioned in the channel-'like recess bounded by web 5, bottom flange 7 and top flange 9, and are welded to these parts to provide additional transverse and vertical strength.

Adjacent ends of lengths of base portions 1 may be cut at a substantial angle, e.g., 45 to the -axis of the rail, in the horizontal plane, and may either be butt-welded to each other as at 13 (FIGS. 1, 2) to form a continuous base portion or be spaced apart to accommodate thermal expansion.

Head portion 3 is a steel Z-section comprising upright web 15 and horizontal flanges 19, 19 with radii 17 at the web and flange intersections. Head portion 3 is mounted on base portion 1 with its upper flange 19 overlying single upper flange 9 of base portion 1, wi-th head portion web 15 adjacent and par-allel to the surface of base portion web 5 remote from base portion upper flange 9, and the head portion bottom llange 19 overlying the portion of base portion 'bottom flange 7 on the opposite side of web 5 from top flange 9.

For supporting head portion 3 on base portion 1, a

thick pad 21 of rubber or other elastomeric material having similar properties is interposed between base portion upper ange 9 and head portion upper ange 19, preferably being bonded t-o the former. Pad 21 is continuous ylengthwise Iof the rail and provides cushioning and sound absorption. Head portion 3 is secured to base portion 1 by means of bolts 23 passing through aligned holes 25 `and 27 in web 15 of head portion 3 and web 5 of base portion 1, the holes 27 in web 5 being of suicient diameter to closely receive the bolt and holes 25 being of slightly greater diameter to accommodate some vertical movement of the rail head portion 3 relative to base portion 1 -resul-ting from compression of rubber pad 21 under load. Interposed between head portion vertical web 15 ICC and base portion vertical web 5 is 4another pad 29 elon- -gated continuously lengthwise of the rail which prevents metal-to-metal contact and consequent noise transmission between th'e rail head portion 3 and base portion 1. In order to eliminate rnetal-to-metal contact between head 31 of bolt 23, a similar pad 33 is positioned against the opposite surface of head portion web 15, pads 29 and 33 being formed with aligned holes 35 and 37 of substantially the same diameter as bolt 23 to permit the passage therethrough of bolt 23. Outwardly of pad 33, that is, adjacent its surface remote from head portion web 15, an elongated plate 39, preferably the web of a channel 41, is formed with holes 43 of sufficient diameter to closely receive the shank of bolt 23 and is interposed between pad 33 Vand head 31 of bolt 23 to distribute the pressure of the bolt heads through a greater area of the surface of pad 33 and thus prevent excessive compression of the pad in the small area under the bolt head. Bolts 21 threadably mount nuts `43 for holding the vertical webs 15 land 5 in yassembled relation .and the upright pads 29 and 33 in predetermined compression. For maintaining the assembly in such assembled relation, a lock washer 45 of any conventional type -may lbe interposed between nut 43 and the adjacent surface of base portion vertical web 5, or -other locking means may be applied.

With the construction des-cribed above, it will be evident that the base and head portions 1 and 3 of the rail will be maintained in assembled relation by bolts 23 without any metal-to-metal contact between the head and base portions, such contact being eliminated by horizontal rubber pad 21 `anti vertical pad 29, met-al-t-o-me-tal contact by means of .bolts 23 being obviated by the enlarged bolt holes 25 in head portion upright webs 15 and by the spacing of the bolt heads 31 from upright web 15 and vertical pad 33 and plate 39. As has been indicated above, the intersections of head Iportion horizontal flanges 19 with Webs 15 are formed on a radius 17 so as to present substantially the same contour as the usual A.R.E.A. rail section and thus conform to the A.A.R. wheel tread contour. The use of Z-section head portion 3 permits the reversal of the flanges 19 when the one originally placed uppermost begins to show excessive wear, and the iother flange can then be used as the rail head until it also shows excessive wear when, of course, the Z-section head portion 3 can be removed and replaced with a new Z-section.

To provide continuity of `support for the head section by the base section, joints in the two sections are offset lengthwise of the rail from each other, as best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2; i.e., joints 47 in the head portion 3 are preferably positioned intermediate base section joints 13 so that the base section is continuous beneath head section joints 47 and the Ihead section joints are preferably not at :right angles to the axis of the rail in the horizontal plane but are at an angle of 45 so that the line of contact between the wheels and the rails will never coincide throughout its length with the break in the rail head at the joint -as would be the case if the breaks extended transversely of the rail as in conventional construction. This will reduce any tendency of the rail head to break at joints due to the concentration of wheel load `at the joint and provide a gradual transfer of the load from one section t-o the next. Preferably also, all rail head joints will be formed by butt-welding the adj-acent ends of the rails t-o each other, although it will be understood that insulated gaps may be provided where required for track signal circuits and to accommodate thermal expansion.

As various changes could be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention it is intended t-hat all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a flimiting sense, and the exclusive use of modifications coming within the scope of the appended claims is accordingly contemplated.

What is claimed is:

1. A composite `rail comprising an elongated base prtion section having ran upright web formed with a double horizontal ange along its lower margin and a single horizontal flange along its upper margin, a rst elongated pad of elastomeric material seated on said upper flange, a second elongated pad of elastomeric material seated against the surface of said upright member facing away from said upper iiange, an elongated head portion section having an upright web with a horizontal flange along its upper margin mounted on said base portion section with said last-named web and ange engaging, respectively, said second and first elastomeric pads, aligned holes formed in said upright webs and spaced apart longitudinally thereof, bolts passing through said holes, the holes in one of said upright webs snugly receiving said bolts iand the holes in the other upright web being substantially larger than said bolts, a third elongated pad of elastomeric material positioned against the surface of said other upright web remote from said second pad, a plate elongated lengthwise of the :rail engaging said third pad and formed with holes aligned with the holes in said upright webs, said bolts having means Ion their opposite ends engaging said plate and one of said upright webs and maintaining said plate and said upright webs in compressive relation with said second and third pads.

2. A composite rail according to claim 1 in which said head portion is of Z-section, with a second horizontal flange extending from said web in a direction transversely opposite -t-o that of said first named llange.

3. A composite rail according to claim 1 in which similar elongated base portion sections are joined to each other at their ends `and similar elongated head portion sections are joined to each other at their ends, the joints of said head portion sections to each other being offset lengthwise of the rail from the joints of said base por- -tion sections to each other.

4. A composite rail according to claim 3 in which the -head portion section joints are at a substantial angle in the horizontal plane from the perpendicular to the axis of the rail.

5. A composite yrail according to claim 1 in which said plate has a lmarginal flange.

6. A composite rail according to claim 5 wherein said plate is the Iweb of a channel.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 82,881 10/1868 Shepard 238-144 164,793 6/ l875 BanOlaS 238-144 918,640 4/1909 Allison 23S- 143 1,125,748 l/l915 Slick 23S-143 1,783,238 12/1930 G-rundon et al 238-151 ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

R. A. BERTSCH, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A COMPOSITE RAIL COMPRISING AN ELONGATED BASE PORTION SECTION HAVING AN UPRIGHT WEB FORMED WITH A DOUBLE HORIZONTAL FLANGE ALONG ITS LOWER MARGIN AND A SINGLE HORIZONTAL FLANGE ALONG ITS UPPER MARGIN, A FIRST ELONGATED PAD OF ELASTOMERIC MATERIAL SEATED ON SAID UPPER FLANGE, A SECOND ELONGATED PAD OF ELASTOMERIC MATERIAL SEATED AGAINST THE SURFACE OF SAID UPRIGHT MEMBER FACING AWAY FROM SAID UPPER FLANGE, AN ELONGATED HEAD PORTION SECTION HAVING AN UPRIGHT WEB WITH A HORIZONTAL FLANGE ALONG ITS UPPER MARGIN MOUNTED ON SAID BASE PORTION SECTION WITH SAID LAST-NAMED WEB AND FLANGE ENGAGING, RESPECTIVELY, SAID SECOND AND FIRST ELASTOMERIC PADS, ALIGNED HOLES FORMED IN SAID UPRIGHT WEBS AND SPACED APART LONGITUDINALLY THEREOF, BOLTS PASSING THROUGH SAID HOLES, THE HOLES IN ONE OF SAID UPRIGHT WEBS SNUGLY RECEIVING SAID BOLTS 